The Final Stretch: 4 Days Away

8 Oct

Almost a year in the making, we’re only 4 days from our big move to Buenos Aires, Argentina! We’ve done more thinking and planning for this move than we did for our wedding day.

As we make the turn into the final stretch there really isn’t too much more for us to do. I thought I’d recap some of the logistics of preparing for this move as well as what’s still to be done. This is certainly not a comprehensive list.

 
COMPLETED

General
– Move from LA to Columbus (because when we return, we’ll stay in the Midwest)
– Find a way to make money
– Prepare Maggie’s resume in English and Spanish
– Cancel U.S. mobile phone plans
– Find an apartment in BA for the first month
– Find a place for Bayla, our dog (a future post to come)

Cars
– Leave Maggie’s car with my parents in Las Vegas
– Repair my car from a previous accident
– Leave my car with Maggie’s mom in Columbus
– Get cheaper car insurance

Banks & Money
– Save, save, save! We’re not at our goal, but there’s no turning back now!
– Get a year of forbearance on student loans
– Open new personal accounts that have zero international and ATM fees (more on this in a future post)
– Open business bank account
– Change to paperless option and set up online transfers between all accounts

Packing
– Buy hygiene products now
– Buy any and all clothes we’ll need (because clothes cost more in BA)
– Photo copies of Passports

 
STILL TO DO

– Find two more suitcases
– Get my car registered in Ohio
– One last oil change for my car
– Cancel California car insurance
– PACK!

 
We’re basically ready to go! It helps calm our nerves that we’ve done so much planning. Our main nervousness concerns finances. We’re not just visiting Buenos Aires, we’re moving there. We have to be successful. My hope is that I can find a place to sit down and work on the Internet most of the day without distraction. Maggie’s hope is that she can find a decent job (tutoring or teaching) early on. Time will tell. We’re hopeful.

A Language that Pays the Bills

1 Oct

While learning Spanish will cost us some money, I’ve found another language that will pay me: HTML.

Since August I’ve been busy coding web sites in HTML, CSS, jQuery and some PHP, the languages of the web. That’s my new gig. I’m a web developer. I sit in front of the computer most of the day listening to Ratatat running my new business, which I’m calling Shoe Shine Design & Development.

It’s nerve-wracking going from a steady paycheck to being a small-business owner hoping contracts keep coming in and clients pay on-time. Thankfully, work has been steady. I’ve landed 7 contracts already and one site is just a week or so away from going live.

Once I have enough completed sites to fill a decent portfolio, I’ll put up a web site of my own.

For now, just remember me whenever you ever need a web site, big or small, or know of someone who is looking. It’s for a good cause: Maggie’s meals.

My mother-in-law's basement has served as my office for the past 4 weeks.

A Ton of Stuff

10 Sep

If you’ve moved across the country before, you know it isn’t cheap. Since we’re on a tight budget, we looked into a few options for moving our stuff from Los Angeles to Columbus.

Option #1: The most obvious option is to rent a truck. A truck was estimated at $1800. Not too bad, but the need for a car hitch, increased fuel cost, very little room for our dog on the journey, and slower driving made us search out the other options.

Option #2: The whole Pods idea where a company drops off a container and delivers it door-to-door cost the most. The quotes we received were circling $3000.

Option #3: Then a friend, Tom Borland, suggested we build a crate ourselves and ship it through a freight service. I made a few phone calls to freight companies and found that it was hard to find companies that would ship household items. Some who did quoted us at about $1600. That was promising. Then I happened to call Pacific Atlantic Freight who gave us a quote for 2200 lbs for $1143. That included home delivery for $50 in Columbus!

Our search was over, we were going to ship our ton of stuff by freight. Now, we only needed to build the crates. Seeing as I have zero construction skills, Tom offered to help me build the crates. Later, Gerson Bonilla volunteered to help as well.

Tom’s generosity saved us from spending money on renting tools and buying nails and screws. The wood cost $254.

Some of the wood.

Gerson Bonilla cutting the wood to size.

Tom Borland also cutting on one of his many tools in his very manly garage.

A mostly finished crate.

We built three crates in about 4 hours. They were about 7′ (long) x 4′ (wide) x 4′ (tall). After assembling them at Tom’s house, we loaded two in a U-Haul we rented for about $123 and one in Tom’s pick-up. We drove over to our storage facility and loaded the crates. Here again, Tom’s experience in loading trucks for movie studios proved invaluable. We had to buy about $101 worth of moving blankets so our furniture didn’t get scratched up.

Filling the crate.

Screwing the lids on the crates in the rental truck.

The freight terminal we shipped from.

After a long day of building and packing (on one of the hottest days of the summer), Maggie and I drove the crates down to the freight terminal. Immediately, a guy drove over to us in a forklift and started unloading the crates. It was a good feeling.

Unloading our crates at the terminal.

On the other end in Columbus, we thought there might be trouble receiving the crates at the house. They had said the crates were a bit big for a lift gate, but it all worked out rather easily. It’s nice to have our stuff safely in Columbus now. We are so thankful to Tom and Gerson for their help.

In the end, we spent a grand total of about $1621. That includes even the tape we bought. Not bad for a cross-country move.

If you’re looking to move across the country, find a friend who knows how to build a solid crate and call Jeremy at PAF Shipping, (805) 523-7295. He’ll take care of you.

Why Buenos Aires?

7 Aug

We’ve been asked many times, “Why did you choose Buenos Aires?” The decision was easy, really, for several reasons.

Reason #1
We wanted to move to a Spanish-speaking country to immerse ourselves in the language. Even though Maggie has been offered a very lucrative position teaching English in Korea, we’ve turned it down, because Spanish is our number one goal. And of all the Spanish-speaking countries, Argentina has some major perks.

Reason #2
I have been to Buenos Aires before, and so we are already connected with the language school I went to (www.verbum.biz). The prices are some of the most reasonable in all of Buenos Aires and the owner, Marina, has been very kind to us in this whole process. Knowing the city and having a connection are huge advantages.

Reason #3
BA will allow us to live a city life, which we both enjoy. There’s plenty to see and do to keep us interested and exploring. The public transportation (subway, buses, taxis) mean we can get around without need for a car.

Reason #4
We can both work there. Though finding work for Maggie will not be easy, the city has opportunities. There are thousands of schools, private and public, and plenty of people wanting to learn English. My work is based in the U.S., so all I need is an occasional Internet connection and a place to sit. It’s exactly what I do now, just in a different city.

Reason #5
Cost of living. Though everything has gotten much more expensive in BA since when I was there in 2006, it is still relatively affordable for us. Much more than LA! There are cheaper cities, but putting all of these reasons together, we’re willing to give it a go.

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